Jeff Liker, Twenty Years Later: The Ideas That Keep Showing Up

Jeff Liker was guest number three on this podcast back in August 2006. He has been back seven times since, which makes him one of the most frequent guests in the show's history. For this episode, I pulled clips from across those eight conversations, going back almost twenty years. What stood out on the relisten was how much hasn't changed. The lean tools are better known now. There are more books, more case studies, more conferences. The deeper thing Jeff was naming in 2006 - that companies want the words without the work - is the same thing he is still saying in 2026. These aren't his greatest hits. They are the ideas that keep showing up. In this episode, Jeff talks about: The two percent problem: why so few companies have deeply implemented TPS as a system, even after decades of trying How long real transformation takes when Toyota opens a brand new plant under ideal conditions (hint: it isn't fourteen weeks) Why "picking and choosing" lean practices often reinforces the existing management system instead of changing it Fujio Cho on what was hardest to teach Americans about TPS, and why he had to walk the floor every day to teach it Andon, hansei, and why we keep trying to implement a "perfect" lean system instead of a flawed one we can improve The non-negotiables in Toyota Culture, including how Toyota responds when a purchasing manager wants to shut down a US supplier to save thirty percent "Don't skip hats" - what Jeff learned at the UK plant about roles, authority, and going to the gemba to observe rather than solve The difference between the five whys and the five whos, and why the goal isn't the deepest root cause but a controllable one Read the full post with quotes and more at https://leanblog.org/545